Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site

country. United States of America

year of inscription. 1982 (modification: 2016)

criteria. Cultural

The Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site WHS is located in the state of Illinois. It is the site of the largest pre-Columbian settlement north of Mexico. It was the cultural, religious, and economic centre of an agricultural society during the Mississippian Period (800CE – 1400CE), with a population of 10,000 – 20,000 people at its peak between 1050CE and 1150CE. There is up to 120 platform, ridgetop, and conical mounds of varying heights, which served as foundations for buildings or as funerary tumuli. The largest of these is Monks Mound, the largest prehistoric earthern structure in the New World. The organization of the settlement represents a hierarchical, complex chiefdom society with specialised roles and activities.

what. postcard (United States of America, 2021)